Trivia / Owen Hart

• Fatal Method Acting: Famously died in a fall prior to the scripted one from a much greater height than intended.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Owen was slated to win the Intercontinental Championship from The Godfather the night that he died. It was eventually won by his tag team partner and friend Jeff Jarrett one week after, who cried out Owen's name when he was handed the title.
  • During his feud with Bret, Owen was booked to win the WWF Championship off his brother before that was canceled.
  • In his first book, Chris Jericho mentions that Owen was one of the main reasons he became a wrestler and wanted little else but to be one-part of the Tag Team Champions with Owen. He died after Jericho had signed with the WWF, but before Chris had made his debut.
  • Shortly after the Montreal Screwjob, at the following month's pay-per-view (a largely forgettable D-Generation X: In Your House), Owen came through the crowd and attacked Shawn Michaels after the latter had defeated Ken Shamrock to retain his WWE title. This was supposed to lead to a title match at the Royal Rumble and Owen got a big pop when he hit the ring. He became a face calling himself the "Last Hart" after Bret, Jim Neidhart and the British Bulldog all bolted to WCW. The match was scrapped, sources vary as to why.
    • One theory is that Owen hit Michaels with legitimate punches during the attack as retaliation for the Screwjob and Michaels used his political power to cancel the Rumble match.
    • In that same vein, some say there was a legitimate fear that Owen would shoot (fight for real) against Shawn after the Screwjob to get revenge for Bret and because it might get him fired, as the rumor was that Owen wanted his release from the company like the rest of the Hart Foundation. In later years Bret said this wasn't true. The reason Owen didn't leave for WCW with the rest is because WWE gave him a huge raise and WCW wouldn't match his pay. Owen had plans to retire after his WWF contract expired. Also, just about anyone who knew Owen has said that the theory that he'd do anything dangerous or unprofessional is ludicrous.
    • Another theory stipulates that Shawn nixed the match because he was afraid that a match, even a loss by Owen following the Montreal Screwjob would lead to legitimate fan support for Owen and he would again be supplanted as the top man in WWF by a Hart.
    • The theory said to have the most merit is that WWF had been building up "Stone Cold" Steve Austin all year following his legendary match with Bret at WrestleMania 13 and didn't want anything to take the spotlight off of him, which again, giving Owen a high profile match with Michaels post-Screwjob would have done.
  • Imagine if the above match had gone through, though.
    • Shawn Michaels likely wouldn't have injured his back at the Royal Rumble (remember, the injury came from a bump on the casket during a casket match because his opponent at the Rumble ended up being The Undertaker, for whom casket matches are one of his Gimmick Matches). Shawn would go on to retire for four years, the greatest loss stemming from this being that he missed the entirety of the Attitude Era as an active wrestler (he did appearances from time to time as an authority figure).
    • WWE would have had another proven, popular babyface at the top of the roster, something that even with the impending coronation of Steve Austin, they sorely needed.
    • Owen would have never been relegated back to his Blue Blazer gimmick and would not have been in the rafters that fateful night.
  • Chris Benoit was strongly considered to be Owen's "mystery partner" at WrestleMania XI. Benoit, at that time, was ECW World Tag Team champion with Dean Malenko working on a pay per appearance basis. Benoit had caught WWF's attention as a solid technical wrestler and solid tag team worker. Owen and Benoit also knew one another from the Dungeon. Ultimately the role went to a returning Yokozuna.